Robert Wyatt - Old Rottenhat

Recorded in the mid-eighties, Old Rottenhat is one of Robert Wyatt's most stripped down albums. All that is heard besides vocals are keyboards (mostly cheap Casio-ish synthesizer with occasional piano) and percussion, and occasionally a drum machine. All played by Robert himself. Being a member of Communist party, the album also presents Wyatt's political side quite heavily. Wyatt is not known for being prolific and thus, Old Rottenhat serves as his first proper full length since Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard in 1975. Musically the record is rather slow and minimalist, especially in the texture. His melodies are still jazzy and the chord progressions are unusual. Wyatt has also developed interesting drumming technique using just the arms, having been paraplegic since 1973. The former Soft Machine drummer hooligan has evolved into a percussionist capable of subtlety, while driven by necessity, but still an interesting listen. Some of the political commentary might be too heavy handed (such as "Alliance" or "East Timor"), but nonetheless, Old Rottenhat displays a lot of stripped down charm from Robert Wyatt.

Gong - Angel's Egg

In 1973 Gong was possibly one of the few bands specializing in psychedelic rock that kept the psych flag flying, in the age of progressive rock and jazz fusion, both idioms that were becoming increasingly more virtuoso-centric while phasing out the mentally expansive idealism of the late sixties. Even though Gong also flirt with prog and jazz-fusion leanings here, it's less about instrumental show-offs or overbearing seriousness. If anything, the level of musicianship from musicians like drummer/percussionist Pierre Moerlen, highly inventive guitarist Steve Hillage and sax/woodwind master Didier Malherbe; enhances the druggy, surrealist and off-beat humorous vibe and elevates it on an entirely another level. Then again, wherever Daevid Allen went, a lot of deranged aura of weirdness would be present. As a result, Angels' Egg, the second album from the Radio Gnome Trilogy, is all over the place. It offers everything from odd tracks like the drunkenly sang "I'm giving all my loving to you" to deranged pop tunes like "Oily Way" and the lovely vibes-led "Love Is How Y make it", but also lengthy tantristic space-rock jams like the opening cut "Other side in the Sky". Daevid Allen, just like Syd Barrett (who influenced Allen) several years before, is a confirmatory example that the best kind of psychedelic rock comes from genuinely eccentric minds.

Soft Machine - Live At The Proms 1970

Soft Machine was the first rock band to perform the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall. The gig took place on August 13, 1970. Listening to this record, it sounds a pretty decent performance, though its primary importance seems to be that being a historical document. The Softs played three compositions. The version of "Out Bloody Rageous" here is probably the only one that featured the pre-recorded tape loops that were integral to the studio variant, but usually not there in the live context, as the piece was integrated into the continuous medley-like set with other pieces. Here, the number's opener status means that they use the pre-recorded keyboard loops tracks as an intro. The piece itself is played quite nicely, even if a little hurried compared to the other versions. Elton Dean was yet to incorporate the second electric piano thus there's no back-up comping behind Ratledge's organ solo yet. There's an interesting demonic noise section that separates "OBL" from "Facelift", which gets an energetic reading, even if there's some overplaying in that one, such as Elton Dean's occasional aggressive sax spots. Finally they do "Esther's Nose-job". Performed pretty much as usual, the most remarkable spot being Wyatt's psychedelic echo laden scat during the avant-garde section of the piece. Though primarily a historical document, it's still interesting enough to warrant attention. It's fitting that this was re-released as a bonus CD to the remastered Third in 2007.

Soft Machine - Grides

Grides is a CD/DVD set released by Cuneiform featuring a Soft Machine concert on CD and a German TV broadcast on DVD. Since this is the first time The Softs can be seen on an officially released DVD, this release is essential.

What about the CD itself? The gig was recorded in Netherlands, 25th of October, 1970. This is a decent performance, though at places really interesting. They preview a couple of epic pieces from the Fourth album the sessions for which were undertaken at the time. "Virtually" follows Elton Dean's sax solo on "Facelift" and is 14 minutes long, a bit looser than the studio take. "Teeth" is still a work-in-progress as the composition's different and provisional structure indicates. Even Elton Dean's "Neo Caliban Grides" which was in the Softs' setlist but recorded on Elton's first solo album in 1971, was different in its early version. It has a composed theme after the opening riff, which is quite straight, given Elton's free jazz propensity. Mike Ratledge gets a distorted organ solo before the piece dissolves into atonal group improv. This is one of the last times where they play "Esther's Nose Job" and even that piece is on the verge of falling apart. Not only does the group feel kind of tired when they play this piece for umpteenth time, but there are several elements different: first, the melodic part in "Pig" section is dropped, then Robert Wyatt's voice being totally absent from this gig means that his scat vocal is replaced by the instrumental bass melody during "A Door Opens and Closes" section. Last, but not least, "Pigling Bland" is played exactly as played from 1971 onwards. Only "Pigling Bland" part survived it in the band's setlist the next year. The encore is quite a nice rendition of the mid-section of "Slightly All The Time" as heard on Third album, with more fuzz bass from Hopper and it ends with an aggressive rendition of Hopper's "Noisette" theme.

DVD was filmed at German TV show Beat Club on 23th March, 1971. They play "Neo Caliban Grides", which had reached its full atonal, group improv oriented form; followed by "Out Bloody Rageous" with great solos from Mike Ratledge (backed by Elton on electric piano) and Elton on alto sax. "Eamonn Andrews" features a mind-blowing scat vocal improv from Wyatt and they round it off with a proto-version of "All White". The CD part has an ok concert, but the DVD is why this album is recommended.

Soft Machine - British Tour 1975

I used to think that post-Wyatt Soft Machine was nowhere near as good as the Wyatt era band. I also held that the closer it drew to the loss of even the final original member from the line-up, the worse it became. The evolution of the band could've been summed up with a quote from a Kevin Ayers' song that went like: "Making life easy by making it worse" as the music of SM was being simplified to generic Fusion music which was nowhere near as radical and interesting as the late sixties and early seventies stuff. I thought the studio albums like Bundles and Softs had their moments, but seemed rather underwhelming in some respects. That's studio alright, but what about live?

Well, this live album is thankfully showing an entirely another side to the latter-day Machine. And it is this release thanks to which it is evident that when the Jenkins era band really wanted to, they could display enough power in their performance. Both Bundles and Softs are represented here. This 78 minute set opens with the pairing of "Bundles" and "Land of the Bag Snake" and it already shows that live, these songs could sound more intense than their studio counterparts. While Allan Holdsworth gets most of the respect, I think John Etheridge is as good of a guitarist, if not even more interesting one. Aside his lightning speed solos, his rhythm guitar playing is equally impressive. So, in guitar department, it's all well. "Out of Season" from the upcoming Softs album follows and it's also a bit more energetic than the studio version, even though a bit too long and repetitive. Then comes the early highlight of the album, which is the rendition of keyboardist Mike Ratledge's "The Man Who Waved At Trains" composition. The rendition here sounds a little less jazzy than the studio counterpart, played again with more verve and intensity, with the inspired rhythm guitar playing. It is already apparent that Karl Jenkins has given up on most of his reeds. Not only is his soprano sax on the main melody poorly miked to the point of being nearly inaudible, but also during the solo section, where there used to be an oboe solo; the one who gets the spotlight is...Ratledge instead. He steps up and cranks up a fiery solo for the next four minutes on his fuzzed Lowrey organ. I've always thought Jenkins' oboe solos were too mild and unassertive, so the decision to relegate the solo to the powerful Ratledge organ was fitting. After his solo, Ratledge messes around on his synthesizer, unaccompanied. At this point, he was still cranking up some wild and deranged keyboard sounds, now on synthesizer instead of treated organ or tape loops like earlier. After a minute long "Floating World", another Softs preview, "Ban Ban Caliban" arrives. It's a great one too. Did I mention that on this concert, Ratledge plays more organ than during the earlier Fusion years? Not just solos, but backing as well. On "Ban Ban Caliban", the minimalist and ethereal head is played by soprano sax and wah-ed organ, the textures of these two combined instruments is mind-blowing. Then comes a transitional riff not present on the studio version, which introduces the solo section. On the studio version, there was a sax solo from Alan Wakeman. In his place, Mike Ratledge whips out another fine solo. It really shows that on this concert album, he's nowhere near as invisible as he was on the final studio sessions with the Machine. The comparative lack of reeds and the dual keyboard textures with more prominent Lowrey organ really contribute to tasteful sound picture, which is another reason why this is archival release is so worthwhile. After Ratledge we have a nice guitar solo from Etheridge as well.

Ok, so far so good. Then come the most dispensable ten minutes of the set and that is...you guessed it, the drum solo. Apparently John Marshall had some interesting percussion solo concepts, but 10 minutes is way too long. After that, becomes the powerhouse "Hazard Profile" suite from the Bundles. It's again somewhat different from the studio version. The biggest change is the part five, where the soprano sax melody is dropped and a solo vamp in a different key (C-minor instead of G) is introduced for Ratledge. He starts with synth, then drops it and whips out more fast and furious organ. Another goodie. For what was apparently an encore, "Song of Aeolus" is played, and it's yet another song that would wind up on Softs album. Again this version plods less and in place of cheesy synth strings on the studio version we have some wonderful Ratledge organ comping. Nice one. There is even an earlier version from 1975 with Ratledge taking a fuzz organ solo while Jenkins comped on acoustic piano, which is available on The Floating World 1975. It's also great. "Sign of Five" is a 15 minute guitar led jam that ends the show quite nicely.

And that was it: a show in Nottingham University in October 11, 1975 where it was evident that the Soft Machine could still play it great. It is albums like these which necessitate revisionism of Jenkins era Soft Machine. The warts-and-all energetic performance certainly has stood the test of time better than the comparatively bland and dated studio stuff from mid-seventies Machine. It also might be among the best archival Machine albums not released by Cuneiform.